Sports : Friday, March 30, 2001

Baseball 2001M's relying on Japanese imports

By Bob Sherwin
Seattle Times staff reporter

Ichiro Suzuki and his wife, Yumiko Fukushima, had never
experienced such a thing together. Here they were in Seattle one winter
day, walking through the downtown Nordstrom, shopping, chatting and
trying things on with thousands of people around them, and no one
bothered to say hello. Their joy was indescribable.

They actually could do the ordinary, the normal, the mundane. It was
thrilling. No hiding in dark limos. No rushing out back entrances. No
crowds closing in on them. No stares. No cameras. No autographs. It's
like they were on another planet, or at least the other side of it.

It was so removed from the lifestyle in their native Japan that they
couldn't help but notice. Ichiro, 27, is the country's greatest
sports star, a seven-time Japan League batting champion and three-time
MVP who is about to become one of the first two position players from
Japan to reach the major leagues Monday night when the Mariners open
their season against the Oakland Athletics. Outfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo,
not nearly the star Ichiro is in Japan, will be on the New York
Mets' Opening Day roster.

The Mariners posted $13.1 million this winter to secure the rights to
the right fielder and leadoff hitter just so they could negotiate a
three-year, $14 million deal.

His full name is Ichiro Suzuki, but he's so famous people
refer to him by his first name, like Madonna and Magic, Pele and Pluto.
Yumiko was a well-known television reporter. They are the country's most
recognizable people and the most politely abused.

In the winter of 1999, when the couple was planning its wedding, it
was clear they couldn't hold it in Japan. They would be overwhelmed. So
they got married in a private ceremony in front of a handful of friends
in Los Angeles. Yumiko could not pick out a wedding grown in Japan. She
had to go to Europe. They flew to the United States in separate planes
under assumed names.

While that might seem excessive, the security arrangements and planning Ichiro
has had to go through on a daily basis in Japan are over the top. There
is the story of him once being rolled up in a carpet and stuffed into
the back of a pickup truck so he could be driven stealthily past a crowd
for a date with Yumiko.

"It's fanaticism," said player agent Tony Attanasio, who
represents Ichiro. "You can't have a dinner at a restaurant
unless it's in a guarded private room. Otherwise, it would be impossible
for him to eat. I've had dinner with him as late as 1:30 in the morning.

"He can't walk into a (hotel) lobby. He would be mobbed. It's
service entrances 100 percent of the time. His face and image are so
identifiable. Take Mark McGwire's presence in this country, then
multiply that by 100 or even 200 times, and you might get the idea what
it's like for him there. I've been in this business a long time and have
been around some of the biggest stars, but I've never seen a player in
any sport treated that way."

Jim Colborn, the Mariners' former Pacific Rim coordinator who now is
the Dodgers' pitching coach, said last winter that when the Mariners
signed Ichiro, the press conference was at the Nintendo
headquarters in Kyoko. He told the taxi driver to take him to Nintendo
and the response was, "Oh, you're going to the Ichiro press
conference."

"I said, `How did you know?' " Colborn said. "He told
me, `Everybody knows. People may not know who the premier of the country
is, but everyone from 3 to 93 knows Ichiro.' "

Of course, there's another Japanese player on the team, closer Kazu
Sasaki, whose status in Japan approaches the same level of intensity and
scrutiny. Sasaki is Japan's all-time saves leader with 229 and signed
last year with the Mariners. He was voted AL Rookie of the Year after
saving a team-record and AL rookie record 37 games and helping the club
reach the postseason.

Now one team, the Mariners, has Japan's best pitcher and best hitter.
It's like Magic and Michael being teammates, of course, 100 or 200 times
multiplied.

What ties the Japanese connection even tighter is the fact that the
Mariners' majority owner is Nintendo owner Hiroshi Yamauchi. He was
pleased a year ago that Sasaki joined the team but, like most of his
countrymen, Ichiro is his favorite player.

"He told me the player he always wanted to see play for the
Mariners is Ichiro," said Mariner CEO Howard Lincoln.
"We were pleasantly surprised when he was posted. I know from the
look on his (Yamauchi's) face when I saw him in Kyoto that he was
delighted that we finally accomplished something he wanted. He wants to
make sure Ichiro and his wife are comfortable and that this is a
pleasant transition."

The Mariners, popular in the mid '90s with such stars as Ken Griffey
Jr., young Alex Rodriguez, Jay Buhner, Edgar Martinez and Randy Johnson,
have expanded their image. It's no longer regional, it's global. This is
Japan's team, as an entire nation turns its attention across the
Pacific.

Under the media microscope

If you listen to the language carefully you can hear it. Amid a
string of unfamiliar words suddenly pops one that everyone can
understand, one associated with the game forever.

"Pres-sure."

That's the way the Japanese reporters drop it into their questions,
an English word that doesn't have a succinctly comparable counterpart in
their language. It weaves its way through virtually every interview
session between the hordes of Japanese media and Ichiro, the
one-name superstar.

Oppressive pressure. It's not enough of a burden that Ichiro
is being counted on revitalize the A-Rod-less Mariner offense. It's not
enough that he's a trailblazer. What this slight 5-foot-9, 160-pounder
carries on his shoulders every day is the pride and honor of an entire
country, an entire region. That's all.

You don't have to even be a baseball fan in Japan to know the
ramifications of what Ichiro is attempting to accomplish this
season in the United States.

As Yoichi Amari of the Sports Nippon Newspapers put it,
"Everyone believes that Ichiro can succeed in the major
leagues. But if he doesn't succeed, then Japanese players will not play
(here) again. He is the best player in Japan, so if he can't play, no
one can."

This experiment on the grand stage is why there were 166 media
credentials distributed this spring to Japanese media, twice as many as
Northwest-based media. There are 75 accredited Japanese reporters who
will follow Ichiro all season, compared to three Seattle-based
newspaper reporters. Japanese TV plans to broadcast all 81 Mariner home
games and half the road games. Cable is being installed around Safeco so
the games can be shown in high-definition TV.

The annual spring charity game March 1 between the Mariners and San
Diego Padres was broadcast live back to his nation beginning at 5 a.m.
It was a meaningless game that didn't count in the Cactus League
standings, which are games that don't matter, anyway. But in Japan, it
mattered. Ichiro got a hit in his first at-bat, making for
screaming front-page headlines.

"You can pick up a newspaper any day of the week and see a story
on Ichiro," said Lincoln, who knows the country well from
his years spent with Nintendo. "And most days, his picture is on
the cover. I get the news reports on a daily basis. He's all over the
Japanese press. This is a huge story that's unfolding."

"Here's a picture of him hitting. Here's one catching. Here's
another hitting," said Lincoln, flipping through the reports.
"Every aspect is being reported to the Japanese people. It all goes
right back."

Attanasio said, "Reporters call me from Japan and ask for my
bank account number. They want to deposit money for an interview. This
interview right now could be worth $10,000. It sounds crazy, but it's
true. But I never have and never would charge for something like
that."

If the pressure is weighing him down, Ichiro is not showing
it.

"I don't play baseball for other people. I play baseball for
myself," he said through Ted Heid, who serves as his interpreter.
"They (reporters) can have whatever pressure they want to put on,
but I don't feel it. I really don't have idea what they are expecting me
to do, I just play the best I can."

Japanese reporters generally don't expect Ichiro to win the AL
batting title, but most project him to have an average in the .340
range. That would be a magnificent start, but still 17 points below his
career average in Japan. Mariner Manager Lou Piniella has said .280
would be acceptable for his first season. Those are the divergent levels
of expectations, merely 60 percentage points apart on average.

"Obviously, I am the first position player to come over. That's
a given," Ichiro said. "People say I'm an explorer, a
pioneer, whatever. That's other people's opinion. That's not why I came
over here. I came over here to play baseball."

Baseball American style

Been there, done that.

Sasaki has shared the same experiences as Ichiro in Japan, and
he's a step ahead in this kind of media omnipresence in America. When
Sasaki came over a year ago, he carried the same hopes and burdens,
although there had been a handful of pitchers before and after him -
Hideo Nomo, Hideki Irabu, Shigetoshi Hasagawa and former Mariner Mac
Suzuki. Sasaki may have exceeded them all.

Heid, the Mariners' Pacific Rim operations director and occasional
interpreter for Ichiro, said that fans shouldn't forget
"that Sasaki is a mega star, too. There was nothing like Sasaki
coming into a ballgame (in Japan). There were stories of opposing
managers telling the equipment guys to start packing the bags, the
game's over."

But before Sasaki established himself here, he failed. More than
once. He struggled in training camp, then recovered and won the closer's
job over Jose Mesa in the final week. He struggled again early in the
season, the nadir being May 10-11, when he allowed successive
game-winning home runs. He lost his closer's job again, won it back
within two weeks and was nearly flawless after that.

Concern is percolating over Ichiro is the same fashion. Even
though he hit for a decent spring average, Piniella has wanted to see
him pull the ball more and show some power. Ichiro did that in a
game against Oakland on March 20, when he hit a home run into the
right-field bullpen and also had two doubles over the left fielder's
head. He also hit a home run to right field March 23 against Chicago.

Overall, however, Ichiro has shown a late-swinging,
light-contact style.

Piniella, who has been troubled by Ichiro's rather unusual bail-out
swing, was relieved to see him work the right side. A full endorsement
will not come until Piniella sees what he can do consistently over the
season. It doesn't help Piniella's demeanor on those days when his team
doesn't play well, yet all the Japanese reporters' questions focus
exclusively on Ichiro. That issue will need to be resolved at
some point, perhaps not before a temper snap.

However, as Colborn explains, everyone just needs to settle down.
Colborn has seen Ichiro enough to know Ichiro will produce
at this level. He believes he will deliver for the Mariners.

"He slaps those hits through the left side just to keep his
average up," Colborn said. "Wait until he gets hot. He hasn't
been hot yet. I've seen him when he's hot. That's when he hits line
drives all over the place."

Lincoln uses Sasaki as an example of what to expect from Ichiro.
He remembers all the uncertain talk last spring about Sasaki and whether
he could adjust to a new league, different umpires and better hitters,
new ballparks, and, of course, the media surveillance.

"You contrast what he did in the spring to the end of the season
when he came in against Chicago and New York to save our bacon. That was
a tremendous accomplishment and everyone in Japan knows what he
did," Lincoln said. "Now there are questions whether Ichiro
can pull the ball. Trust me, the same thing is going to happen (to Ichiro)
as happened to Sasaki. There is a huge amount of pressure, but Ichiro
has handled it with extraordinary grace."

Sasaki, referred to in the Japanese media as Dai-Majin (a legendary
folk hero), said having Ichiro on the same team is a dream for
him. The two had talked many times about this possibility of playing in
the majors together.

"Now it has happened. But I don't want to look at him and say,
`He's another Japanese player.' I want to say we're a team," Sasaki
said through his interpreter, Allen Turner. "It doesn't matter
whether we're from the Dominican or Japan. We want to focus on being
part of a team. "Having Ichiro here, there is more publicity
in Japan. That's a good thing. And definitely everyone will be expecting
us to do well, but there is no pressure. I'm just trying to do my best
job. I'm not over here thinking, `I'm a Japanese playing baseball here.'
No, I'm thinking, `I'm a baseball player playing in the big leagues.'
"

Sasaki handled the pressure and the media scrutiny well last season,
perhaps because he has a different personality than Ichiro.
Sasaki is more gregarious. He likes moving among the people, which he
can do in Seattle. A little Sasaki sake is part of his lifestyle. He can
be found frequently in the bars and restaurants in the International
District after games. His interests, as well as his mind, are more open.
Ichiro, who was said to have practiced baseball after school
every day from third grade through high school, is completely focused
and dedicated to the game. He doesn't drink and doesn't like going out
at night.

That intensity may have hoisted up the first red flag in his
experience here. Ichiro has a keen eye for the strike zone -
having never struck out more than 57 times in any season and once going
216 at-bats without a strikeout. After his first game, Ichiro
criticized the umpire's strike zone. Piniella, knowing what long
memories umpires have, had someone speak to him about curbing his
comments.

Heid, his interpreter, was even told by the club not to forward
reporters' questions about umpires to Ichiro. It's clear someone
got to Ichiro. He was recently asked a general question about
adjusting to the umpiring here and said, "The umpires so far have
been wonderful and I don't see any problems adjusting to the strike zone
in America."

He's catching on.

World-wide attention

It might be surprising to learn that despite Seattle's large
Asian population and its cultural and economic ties to Japan, it is not
among that nation's primary tourist destinations.

"To travel agents and the average Japanese citizen, when they
think of the United States they think of New York and Los Angeles,"
Lincoln said. "They don't lump Seattle in there.

"Now we have an opportunity every single night to show them
about Seattle and what makes it a really neat place. These (TV) games
are going to an entire country. That's tremendous advertising for the
city, free of charge."

As the season opens, the impact of two Japanese superstars on the
Seattle team can't be empirically measured. The Mariners have been
approached by travel agencies on availability of blocks of tickets for
Japanese tourists, but there is no way to quantify the numbers yet.

The Crowne Plaza Hotel was swamped with requests from Japanese travel
agents.

"The first two or three weeks after the Mariners signed (Ichiro)
our phones rang off the hook. We have tried to accommodate as many as we
can," said LuAnn Sudarich, director of sales and marketing for the
hotel. The Crown Plaza caters to the baseball crowd, as most of the
visiting teams stay there.

The club is considering informational signage around the ballpark in
both English and Kanji. There have been discussions over Japanese
advertising in the park, particularly in the behind-the-plate board so
the TV spots in Asia can be seen.

Ichiro gear has been flying out of the Mariner team stores.

"In beginning when he was signed, it was very difficult to keep Ichiro
jerseys in stock," said Rebecca Hale, the Mariners' director of
public information. "We had to constantly reorder until we could
figure what the demand level would be.

"I think what we are seeing right now is that Ichiro is
at the level where our very popular players, Ken Griffey Jr., Alex
Rodriguez and Randy Johnson, were at the peaks of their careers."

Ichiro and Sasaki are involved in the team's promotions and
marketing. Sasaki and Ichiro are featured in three of the team's
seven commercials. There are four games this season in which there will
be souvenir giveaways for them, including the only two bobblehead doll
promotions.

The Mariners have the only major league Web site in which there is a
link to connect fans to a Japanese-language-only site. Last year, the
highest number of hits on that site in any week was 7,500. This year,
with Ichiro's addition, it has more than doubled. During a two-week
period, March 11-24, the number of three-minute stays on the Web site
was 29,231. Among those surfers, 59.4 percent were international
visitors.

"They have a most-popular team poll in Japan each year and the
Mariners probably were never in the top five," Sasaki said.
"Since I came over, we were No. 2. The Yankees were No. 1.
Hopefully, this year the Mariners will pass them up and the Mariners
will be the most popular team in Japan."

That just might be a mixed blessing for the Japanese players,
especially for Ichiro trying to establish himself here. More
interest means more fans, more media and more scrutiny.

"I know fans are going to be very patient and understanding of Ichiro,"
Lincoln added, "especially when they realize the pressure he is
under."